GOOD KNIGHT BAD KNIGHT

Here is a John Feinstein article that best captures the essence of Bob Knight.

I have great respect for the General, and believe he gets the big things right. While I think the good outweighs the bad, it's way too close.

Good Knight, Bad Knight

By John Feinstein
Friday, December 29, 2006; E01

It is always the same whenever Bob Knight is in the news. It doesn't matter if he is making news by setting the all-time record for victories as a men's
college coach (or failing to do so as he did last night) or snapping a player's chin or having a fight with a college chancellor at a salad bar.

The defenders line up on one side and recite chapter and verse on The Good Knight: brilliant coach; turns boys into men; graduates most of his players;
has never come close to breaking an NCAA rule; a principled man in a business frequently lacking in principles.

Everything they say is accurate.

Then the detractors line up on the other side with their arguments about The Bad Knight: he's a bully; he emotionally abuses everyone around him, most notably
his players; he's not nearly as loyal to friends as he claims to be; he's never admitted to being wrong about anything.

Everything they say is also accurate.

Which is why Knight has been such a galvanizing figure for most of 40 years. People want heroes to be heroes and villains to be villains. It is rarely that
simple and it isn't even close to being true with Knight. He is, without question, in the first paragraph of any discussion of the greatest college basketball
coaches of all time. John Wooden, Adolph Rupp, Dean Smith, Mike Krzyzewski and Knight. That's the top five and you can put them in any order you want.
He will retire having won more games than any of them with only Krzyzewski (115 behind as of today) having a chance to surpass him. Neither Knight nor
anyone else will touch Wooden's record of 10 NCAA championships, but it doesn't really matter. Regardless of how you frame the conversation, Knight is
right there.

Read the entire article at

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/28/AR2006122801593.html